Men's Suit Fabrics - Our Complete Guide

When it comes to suit fabrics the vast majority of tailoring aficionados would sooner invest in cut and style in tailored suits than micro-weaves and ‘smart’ materials in designer suits. As many people find the very basics of regular men’s suit fabrics confusing, we felt it worth creating a guide that explains some of the fundamentals around suit fabrics.  

In this post we'll cover: 

  • The Most Common Patterns 
  • Types Of Suit Fabrics
  • When To Wear The Fabrics

We also post daily images of some of our favourite suit and jacket shots on Instagram, which you can use for inspiration here: www.instagram.com/rampleyandco.

See our new video series on our YouTube channel exploring the details behind our tailored jackets.


Just as a gentleman has a suit or outfit for every occasion, so is there a fabric for every requirement. Fabric, in tailoring terms, varies based on the fineness of the thread and hence the weight per yard of fabric. Yarn numbers, originating from the industrial quantities of thread spun from a pound of wool, hover around 80 for standard wool up to over 100 for luxuriously smooth wool. It's, therefore, a number closer to 100 that that fine tailors treasure. That actual number can be left to the expertise of the tailor to decide, and an off-the-peg suit may not even mention the yarn number so the easiest starting point is with the fibre itself for understanding men’s suit fabrics.

The most important categories to bear in mind are synthetic and natural fibres. These fibres can form fabric into a variety of different weaves that provide the patterns of men’s suiting. It is how these fibres are treated and woven that produces different suit fabrics, while the array of patterns available is also the product of different weaves.

Common Patterns

Herringbone is so called since it resembles a fish skeleton. This can make a plain coloured fabric nicely textured. 

Herringbone Fabric Suit

Windowpane check is an elegant pattern that breaks up the cloth into a grid. This creates a smooth wrapping effect showing the curvature around the back and boasts the tailor’s skill in matching multiple lines in different panels.

Window Pane Check Fabric

Prince-of-Wales or Glen check is a classic formal pattern of greys favoured by Edward VIII before his accession and subsequent abdication from the throne. It is a regal favourite for its gentle texture that is distinguished but not too overwhelming.

Prince Of Wales Check Fabric

Pinstripe and chalkstripes speak for themselves as edgy icons with an air of Wall Street stockbrokers or gangsters. Feint narrow stripes are the high street staple whilst wider inch-separated chalk stripes resemble more tailored suits, due to the skill in matching the ends of the lines when joining pieces of fabric as can be seen below. This example emphasises the power of stripes when cut in a classic shape with peak lapels and double-breasted fastening for a sharp, angular effect.

Pin Stripe Suit Fabric

These patterns make little difference to the physical characteristics of the fabric. These are decided by the fibres spun to create the threads the fabric is woven from.

When it comes to the jacket, even more visual than the pattern is the cut. We've created a free eBook on the essentials to dressing well, which can be downloaded here: Dressing Like A Gentleman.

Fabric Types 

There are many fabric options available to you when deciding which jacket to purchase, with many options available to suit your needs and type of occasion. Our jacketing fabrics are from Scabal, based on London’s famous Saville Row. The luxury cloths used from Scabal for our tailored jacketing collection are sourced from the beautiful hills of Huddersfield. 

Scabal's composition of fabrics have a vast range of blends, which offers enormous comfort value and colour options. Explore more in our video series below.

Polyester
Let's start with the most basic fabric and work our way up. The most popular man-made synthetic fabric is polyester which for all its sceptics holds a wealth of benefits as a lightweight, durable fabric that will not be consumed by moths. 

On the other hand, the downsides include a shininess that together with the light fabric feels somewhat artificial. It is perfectly serviceable, but does not breath particularly well and therefore can become hot.

While the clear favourite among budget suit lines, most high-street men’s fashion suits are also made from a combination of synthetics. In the latter case branding and restricting tight trousers make the bulk of the price tag. Suits made from Polyester are an option for infrequent wear, but for wear within hot offices and during sunny afternoons more natural fibres provide a much more comfortable fabric.

Polyester Suit

Wool
The universal natural fibre is wool that, although associated with heavy tweeds actually breathes well, is water resistant to an extent and will not burn when brushed by a stray cigarette. Forgive a degree of eulogising, but this incredible fibre has been the fabric of choice for millennia. Wool can also be successfully combined with polyester to host the benefits of both fabrics as a moth-proof, breathable and economical fabric available in a variety of weights.

Light Weight 100% Wool Suit

Tweed
Recent men’s fashion has catapulted the wool-based tweed upon a glorious silver pedestal to the very height of taste. Once synonymous with the elderly and country parishes, the legislation-protected cloth now adorns young and old, hipster and traditionalist and never had need to be sidelined in the first place. 

The cottage industries of weavers of UK suiting fabric on the Scottish island of Harris have been saved as Regent Street is awash from Liberty’s to Cordings with the distinctive orb badge upon handbags, wallets and jackets. Perhaps its challenge is the sheer volume of choice. We much admire some of the more luxurious weaves of colourful checks seen in the windows of Savile Row, plain browns carrying a feint sliver of purple or blue. These are very much modern suits, made to a weight suitable for sauntering around town in all seasons as well as the heat of the Central line.

The annual London Tweed Run takes place in May every year where over a thousand cyclists tour the city centre fully clad in the cloth.

London Tweed Run
Image Source: Hobidas.com


The waistcoat has enjoyed its revival at the same time as tweed, and with this fabric layering is the best option both for elegance and practicalities of temperature. Seek as classic a cut as possible. Tailored is certainly recommended since with good care this is a suit that can last many years.

It was this durability that inspired the tradition of replacing the most worn areas of elbows and cuffs with leather patches, but in the modern age I shall leave such matters of preservation to the wearer. For a more casual look, cotton corduroy trousers covered later can be substituted in the colour of your choice.

Seek as classic a cut as possible. Tailored is certainly recommended since with good care this is a suit that can last many years. It was this durability that inspired the tradition of replacing the most worn areas of elbows and cuffs with leather patches, but in the modern age I shall leave such matters of preservation to the wearer. For a more casual look, cotton corduroy trousers covered later can be substituted in the colour of your choice.

Tweed Suit

While the woollen cloth of most blazers makes a lighter summer alternative, a full suit remains perhaps too warm. While the blazer deserves an article in it's own right, the subject of fabrics to wear with one can be touched upon. Preferable is white, tan or grey flannel trousers, also wool, in the case of the classic navy blue jacket with gold buttons. 

However, these can be difficult to get hold of while linen and cotton trousers are easy. In cooler temperatures contrasting corduroy works beautifully. The most important advice is not to attempt to match the blazer to the trousers, since it is not meant to be like a suit.

Blue Blazer Flannel Trousers

 

Cotton and Linen
As for travels abroad and the height of summer, many gentlemen fear the suit wholly inappropriate. For holiday makers this is quite understandable, but there remain in the mind images of Daniel Craig stepping off a jet in the Bahamas or for the more traditionally-minded, beige Bright Young Things in Venice in Brideshead Revisited. Cotton and linen here form the saviour of men’s tailoring.

Linen Suit

Both of these fibres grown from the earth hang beautifully in stony colours. Linen in particular offers options of blends of cotton or even silk introduced to the fabric. We need not elaborate upon the mere thought of such luxury. However, we would hasten to add that the summer is and should be a time of activity.

In times of picnics, beer gardens and country walks a man’s clothing is at its most vulnerable. A good breathable fabric in a good cut need not cost the earth and will lose nothing from regular trips to the dry cleaners.

Corduroy
Corduroy is a form of cotton woven in such a way as to produce ‘tunnels’ that are then cut so the fibres spring outwards. This is an everyday staple, ideal in winter, though more common as separate trousers given the heavy weight.

Corduroy Suit
Image Source: Thesatorialist.com

Velvet is a similar cotton with a ‘pile’ of upward-facing fibres that will wear quicker if brushed against this grain. For this reason, velvet suits are rare given their vulnerability and should be made with the trousers’ pile upward so when the wearer is sitting the sliding direction goes with the grain. Dinner suits and smoking jackets are beautiful uses of this fabric.

Velvet Jacket

Final Thoughts

As a final note, matching these fabrics can seem a daunting prospect. Although the joy of the suit is that the top and bottom are pre-ordained for you, much of men’s fashion focuses on accessories such as scarves, pocket squares and ties. Each has their own benefits a formula cannot encapsulate.

For instance, a silk scarf goes with anything. However, a general rule to keep in mind is that to match fabrics you should match the weight. Heavy wools go with heavy wools like tweed but would look out of place with linen. 

What Makes Our Jackets So Special?

Now that you know the ins and outs of suiting fabrics it’s time to explore our bespoke collection of tailored jackets. As well as being constructed from fabric supplied by the world-renowned Scabal of Savile Row, what makes our jackets genuinely exceptional is the ability to select your choice of the lining (included in the total price). Your lining is not about being extravagant but ensuring you have something personal to you that lasts a lifetime. We have a large selection of jacket linings and offer a bespoke service should you want an authentic one-of-a-kind jacket.

Fit is also incredibly important to us, and so our tailored jackets are designed to look good across all body shapes, ensuring you always look and feel your best. We offer two fits, slim and regular, as well as allowing you to choose the perfect length to suit your torso and arms. We recommend you look at our comprehensive size guide, which gives a complete overview of the sizing should you wish to check against another jacket here: Jacket Size Guide.

Once you have purchased your jacket, one of our team will follow up with you instantly to double-check the details and answer any further questions. Your satisfaction is absolutely guaranteed, so you can be sure that you will be delivered a jacket that exceeds your expectations. 

SHOP OUR TAILORED JACKETS COLLECTION

Click here to view our full range of Men’s Tailored Jacket.

 

Our Pocket Square Collections